Don’t want to pay 3D tax for HTC’s Evo 3D? You’ll be wanting the Sensation then, which is HTC’s new worldwide flagship phone. With its sculptured, curved unibody aluminum body, it’s also one of HTC’s thinnest handsets at 11.54mm. More »
Don’t want to pay 3D tax for HTC’s Evo 3D? You’ll be wanting the Sensation then, which is HTC’s new worldwide flagship phone. With its sculptured, curved unibody aluminum body, it’s also one of HTC’s thinnest handsets at 11.54mm. More »
Sony Ericsson debuted its Xperia Arc smartphone, pictured above, at this year\’s Consumer Electronics Show in January. Photo courtesy of Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson’s Xperia line of Android smartphones were set to launch this spring. The earthquake that struck Japan last month, however, has delayed a wide release of the Xperia Neo model till the fall.
“Due to supply chain disruptions resulting from the situation in Japan, we have shifted the timing of Xperia Neo’s broader launch,” a spokesperson from Sony Ericsson told Wired.com. The phone is now scheduled to be released in the fall.
Sony Ericsson also stated that “some volume” of Xperia Arc and Xperia Play phones were affected by the quake, although the company declined to state whether the global releases of either phone would be impeded. The Xperia Play — an Android-based smartphone capable of running Playstation games which can be downloaded from the Android Market — was released in Europe in April, as well as the Xperia Arc.
Sony Ericsson says it will address the delays further in its April 19 financial results conference call.
With its 3.7-inch touchscreen, the Xperia Neo is the veritable younger brother to the Xperia Arc (which measures in with a 4.2-inch screen). But the Neo and the Arc share many of the same specs under their hoods — both come with 8 gigs of microSD card storage, an 8-megapixel back facing camera, and a 1-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor running the latest version of Android for phones, 2.3 (Gingerbread).
The Neo will retail for 400 GBP in the UK, or about $650 US.
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Mobile phones have come a long way. And though you probably haven’t been following it quite as closely, so has 3D projection mapping. Vodafone uses the technique in this stunning new video that celebrates the cell phone from the Zach Morris days, through the Snake era, and up to the feature-laden smartphones of today. [YouTube] More »
Google's Andy Rubin speaks at an Android Honeycomb event in February. Photo: Mike Isaac/Wired.com
Android chief Andy Rubin took to the blogs Wednesday evening to combat recent reports of Google clamping down on Android’s openness.
“We continue to be an open source platform and will continue releasing source code when it is ready,” wrote Rubin on the Android Developer Blog. “As I write this the Android team is still hard at work to bring all the new Honeycomb features to phones. As soon as this work is completed, we’ll publish the code. This temporary delay does not represent a change in strategy.”
Google has championed its platform as the open alternative to Apple’s closed iOS system. That openness has been called into question recently, as Google has yet to release the Honeycomb source code to all developers and manufacturers.
Honeycomb is Android’s first tablet-optimized software release. Rubin cites the difference in form factor between tablets and phones as the reason Google hasn’t released Honeycomb’s source code to device manufacturers and developers.
Motorola is the exception: The company’s Honeycomb-fueled Xoom tablet has been on the market for more than a month, which makes Google’s decision to hold the code from wide release a bit mystifying.
Members of the Android industry showed faith in Google, however.
“They say they’re going to release it, I’m not gonna call them liars,” Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin told Wired.com in an interview. The Android OS is based on a version of the Linux OS, which has been an open source, collaborative platform since its release decades ago.
Rubin’s post also addressed questions raised in a recent Bloomberg story about Android’s level of control over its partners. Bloomberg wrote:
Over the past few months, according to several people familiar with the matter, Google has been demanding that Android licensees abide by “non-fragmentation clauses” that give Google the final say on how they can tweak the Android code — to make new interfaces and add services — and in some cases whom they can partner with.
Rubin combats this claim directly, stating Google’s so-called “anti-fragmentation program has been in place since Android 1.0,” citing a list of compatibility requirements manufacturers must adhere to in order to market a device as “Android-compatible.”
He’s referring to Android’s compatibility test suite, or CTS, an automated litmus test to measure whether or not a piece of hardware can claim to run Android.
“Our approach remains unchanged: There are no lock-downs or restrictions against customizing UIs,” wrote Rubin.
Motorola vouches for Rubin’s statement.
“In the time since we’ve started working with Google, our relationship has matured, but it isn’t any more limiting than it ever has been,” Christy Wyatt, Motorola’s VP of mobile software development, told Wired.com. “I don’t believe that anything has changed in the CTS since the beginning.”
Finally, Rubin emphatically denied other rumors of ARM-chipset standardization in the platform, much of which arose in the wake of an anonymously sourced DigiTimes story.
“There are not, and never have been, any efforts to standardize the platform on any single chipset architecture,” Rubin wrote. With the Nexus One, Google’s first flagship phone, the company worked with Qualcomm to install its 1-GHz Snapdragon ARM processors in the HTC-manufactured handsets. The subsequent Nexus S came equipped with Samsung’s 1-GHz Hummingbird processor, which is also based on ARM architecture.
It’s out of character for Rubin and Android to post such a defensive update. Rumors circulating in the media are usually given a brusque “no comment” by Google’s communications team.
But the title of Rubin’s post — “I think I’m having a Gene Amdahl moment” — explains it all. Amdahl coined the acronym FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) in 1975. After leaving IBM to form his own IT company, Amdahl claimed he suffered attacks by IBM sales staff attempting to undermine his new venture.
All of this negative attention isn’t good for Android’s “open” image, and maybe that’s what overcame Rubin’s reluctance to speak: too much FUD about Android’s future.
Whether or not this FUD is warranted, however, remains to be seen.
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Apple's iPhone 4 includes a front-facing camera for video conferencing. A few customers claim the camera is taking random photos when it's supposed to be inactive. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
A small number of iPhone 4 customers claim their phones’ front-facing cameras are snapping photos of them without their knowledge.
These inadvertently snapped photos later appear on the iPhone screen when they try to initiate a FaceTime video-conferencing call, about a dozen customers said in Apple’s support forums. For instance, one person said that FaceTime showed a picture of her in her office, even though she’d never used FaceTime at work.
The bug freezes the video call, requiring customers to retry until FaceTime properly loads.
One iPhone owner on Wednesday uploaded a video (below) demonstrating the bug. In the video, the iPhone 4 shows a still shot of the customer after he initiates a FaceTime call.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment. Wired.com staff was not able to replicate the glitch after several attempts on both iOS 4.3 and iOS 4.3.1, the versions of the operating system that reportedly suffer from the problem.
The glitch appears to affect a diminutive number of users, but it’s worth noting that Apple’s popular iPhone has fallen victim to several embarrassing security flaws in the past. In two instances, the iPhone’s security passcode was easily bypassed with a simple button sequence. Security researchers also discovered a memory-corruption bug that would allow a hacker to crash an iPhone with a text message and take control of it.
“Sounds like Apple has a potentially serious privacy leak,” said Jonathan Zdziarski, an iPhone-security researcher, regarding customers’ reports of the front-facing camera bug. “I guess the moral of the story is don’t let your iPhone see you naked.”
Wired.com is continuing to look into the issue. If you’re experiencing similar problems, or if you’ve found a solution, please post in the comments section.
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Grooveshark users can stream any of the 6 million songs in its catalog to their mobile devices — except for Android and iOS users. Photo courtesy Grooveshark.
Popular music-streaming service Grooveshark got yanked from Google’s Android Market over the weekend, and the company isn’t happy about it.
“Google notified us on Saturday that it had removed our app from the Market,” Grooveshark’s Ben Westermann-Clark told Wired.com in an interview, “but frankly, we’re baffled by this. We’re always compliant with DMCA regulations to make sure that we operate within the law and respect the wishes of content owners.”
Grooveshark wasn’t above taking a shot at Android’s relatively open app ecosystem, either. The company issued this statement:
Unlike Apple’s iPhone ecosystem, Android is an open platform, and Google is traditionally a supporter of DMCA-compliant services –- indeed, Google itself relies on the DMCA for the very same protection that Grooveshark does.
Google often champions its Android Market as open when speaking of the platform. Unlike Apple, Android has no vetting process for the apps that are submitted to the market. However, Google has removed apps from the market and even remotely deleted them from customers’ phones when it’s found apps that misrepresent themselves or that could be malicious.
Grooveshark remains in the dark as to exactly why it got ousted. All it knows is that the Recording Industry Association of America, a copyright watchdog and lobbying group, was involved.
“We haven’t received any specific information from Google about what in the developers’ terms of service, exactly, we need to address to be readmitted to the marketplace — only that Google received a letter of complaint from the RIAA,” the company said in a statement.
Wired.com’s request for comment from the RIAA was not returned.
Google isn’t going into specifics. “We remove apps from Android Market that violate our policies,” a Google spokesperson told Wired.com.
Google’s removal of the app comes several months after Apple’s expulsion of Grooveshark from its App Store for iPhones and iPads. “As an IP holder ourselves, we understand the importance of protecting intellectual property,” Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller told Wired.com in August. “Due to objections by rights-holders, the Grooveshark app has been removed until resolution is reached by both parties.” The removal was prompted by Universal Music Group U.K.’s takedown request.
Grooveshark isn’t a stranger to litigation. EMI was engaged in a copyright-infringement lawsuit with Grooveshark in 2009, but the record company dropped the charges after agreeing to a licensing deal with the music service.
Much like Europe’s Spotify, the Gainsville, Florida-based Grooveshark is a “freemium” (free trial period with an eventual $9 monthly fee to continue) streaming-music service for mobile, It lets you play any tracks hosted in its catalog of over 6 million songs. The service is also accessible through its web interface for free.
Grooveshark differs from competing apps like Pandora or Rdio in that it’s user-sourced. In other words, it’s like a YouTube for music.
And, says Westermann-Clark, “like YouTube, Grooveshark pulls content when copyright owners come in and ask for it.”
Grooveshark remains available for download on RIM’s BlackBerry App World store and HP’s webOS store. The app can still be loaded onto your iOS device — if you jailbreak your phone.
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Motorola's Xoom remains the Android tablet to beat, but the high price may be scaring off the public. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Motorola’s 2011 Android lineup looked like it would give Apple a run for its money. But high prices and second-place product reviews may be defeating Motorola while its feet are barely out of the blocks.
Sales trends for Motorola’s Xoom tablet and its Atrix smartphone have been “disappointing,” according to James Faucette, analyst for research firm Pacific Crest. Faucette doesn’t provide any specific numbers, and Motorola hasn’t released sales figures, but analysts from Deutsche Bank are estimating the sales of the Xoom at 100,000 units sold within the tablet’s first month-and-a-half of availability, according to a Dow Jones wire report. Compare that to the 300,000 iPads sold on Day One of the tablet’s release a year ago.
Price is a big problem for Motorola. Consumer Reports ranked Motorola’s $800 3G, 32-GB version of the Xoom as equivalent to the 3G, 32-GB version of Apple’s first generation iPad, which goes for $580. Apple’s recently debuted iPad 2 topped Consumer Reports’ list of the 10 most-promising tablets.
However, the Xoom still remains the most viable competitor to the iPad 2, says Consumer Reports. Both tablets boast 10-inch screens, 3G and Wi-Fi capability, but the magazine concedes that the Xoom offers a few features the iPad 2 doesn’t — e.g., a built-in memory-card reader and Flash support.
The Xoom will also be upgradable for use on Verizon’s 4G network for free in the future, whereas Apple has no immediate plans to utilize any of the current 4G networks with its devices.
Each of the tablets on CR’s list was evaluated on 17 criteria, including ease of use, touchscreen responsiveness, versatility and screen glare. Tablets from Dell, Archos, Samsung and Viewsonic were also among those tested.
“So far Apple is leading the tablet market in both quality and price,” Paul Reynolds, electronics editor at Consumer Reports, said in a statement. “However, it’s likely we’ll see more competitive pricing in tablets as other models begin to hit the market.”
In Wired.com’s reviews, we ranked the iPad 2 at the top, scoring a 9 out of 10, while the Xoom came in at a 6.
As for the Atrix, the recent price drop of two competitive phones to $50 — Apple’s iPhone 3GS and HTC’s Inspire 4G with an Amazon deal — may account for Atrix sales coming in “well below forecast,” according to Faucette.
The Atrix has also taken flak for the high prices of its heavily hyped peripheral products. The laptop dock, which allows the phone to be converted into a portable notebook-like device, costs a cool $500. And the HD multimedia device that lets you attach the phone to an external HD monitor, essentially turning the Atrix into a PC, costs another $190. While the bells and whistles of the two accompanying devices made the Atrix stand out from competing smartphone debuts, the price points brought less-flattering attention.
However, as a phone, the Atrix is superb, Wired.com’s reviewer found.
While Motorola may have priced the Atrix’s accessories out of reach, it may be doing the right thing by thinking outside the mobile-market box.
“As the devices become more and more alike, manufacturers will do anything they can to differentiate themselves,” Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney told Wired.com in an interview.
That may include hardware peripherals like those found with the Atrix, or it could include tweaks in the Android user interface — as evidenced in Motorola’s Motoblur UI, or HTC’s Sense — though not all users prefer the UIs (or skins) created by the manufacturers.
With the release of multiple, relatively lower-cost tablets to come later in 2011, we’ll see if Motorola’s plans will change.
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Apple's iPhone 4 landed on the Verizon network in February. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
iPhone owners responding to a research firm’s survey reported a significantly higher percentage of overall dropped calls on the AT&T network than on Verizon.
ChangeWave polled roughly 1,300 iPhone customers on each of the networks, on how frequently they experienced a dropped call in the past 90 days.
AT&T iPhone customers reported an average of 4.8 percent of calls dropped, and Verizon iPhone customers reported a 1.8 percent average dropped-call rate.
Despite the differences in dropped-call rates, iPhone customers on both networks reported nearly equal satisfaction ratings: 82 percent of Verizon iPhone customers say they’re “Very satisfied,” versus 80 percent of AT&T customers reporting the same.
Wired.com’s tests in San Francisco also found that the iPhone experienced fewer dropped calls on the Verizon network than AT&T, but the differences were minor. Our tests also found that the iPhone on AT&T’s network is significantly faster with 3G transfer rates than Verizon’s.
The equal satisfaction rates are noteworthy, because they suggest that Verizon customers aren’t perturbed about slower bandwidth speeds. On the other hand, it’s not surprising that people would value reliability — having a connection at all — more than speed.
ChangeWave’s substantially higher dropped-call rate on AT&T is questionable, however, and should be taken with a grain of salt. Asking people to recall how many of their calls dropped over the past three months isn’t a very scientific method to measure a network’s reliability. Also worth noting is that the iPhone hasn’t even been on Verizon for 90 days; it’s been on the network for less than two months.
Independent wireless firm Metrico did a more comprehensive study on network performance. The company found that the Verizon iPhone was an average performer in voice quality, whereas the AT&T iPhone ranked low in call performance. Also, the AT&T iPhone was a top performer in download rates, whereas the Verizon iPhone ranked “below average” in data downloads.
On the subject of dropped-call rates, an AT&T spokesman claimed that AT&T’s dropped-call rate is about one tenth of 1 percent. A study performed by a third-party wireless firm corroborates that statistic.
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The highly-rated HTC Thunderbolt is a powerful phone, but apparently not without its problems. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
HTC’s recently released Thunderbolt smartphone has drawn praise for its powerful hardware and fast network speeds. But hundreds of users are having problems with the phone’s audio playback when using the Thunderbolt’s built-in video camcorder.
Across multiple Android smartphone-dedicated forums, users of the Thunderbolt are reporting almost inaudible sound playback when viewing videos taken with the new phone.
“I was recording my son literally a foot away,” said an Android Forums user in a post. “He was yelling and you can barley [sic] hear it on the video.”
Fortunately for Thunderbolt owners, HTC has acknowledged the issue in the phones and says its working towards resolving the issue, as suggested by an e-mail the company sent to one user:
Due to feedback such as your own, we did some testing here of the issue that you describe. We have in fact escalated these tests to the development team. We cannot say at this time if this is a software or hardware issue. We are working hard to resolve this in a timely manner.
The Thunderbolt is Verizon’s first 4G-smartphone offering on its newly founded LTE network. So far, the phone’s launch has been quite successful. Reports of speed tests on Verizon’s network have been stellar, and the phone itself has supposedly been outselling the iPhone 4 at a number of Verizon retailers.
Glitches are not uncommon with new product launches. The iPhone 4 suffered from widespread reports of dropped calls due to its unusual external antenna design, a problem that culminated in Apple issuing free cases to disgruntled customers.
The EVO 4G had a storage glitch shortly after it launched, which HTC subsequently fixed. And some of earliest versions of Android running on T-Mobile’s G1 had a keyboard bug that sent commands to the phone’s Unix shell.
But if Verizon and HTC are to keep the Thunderbolt’s momentum going, any potential widespread hardware or software problems like the audio issue need to be taken care of.
“I have taken my phone to Verizon and explained,” claimed one user on HTC’s official web site, “tried the 2 demo phones and an employees all with the same result of low audio.”
HTC has not responded to Wired.com’s request for further comment.
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